Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 254

ASHER

Mrs. Costa knew the truth about Ariella and my father.... She has to.

“What do you mean?” she asked on a swallow.

“I want to know what happened.... Six years ago,”

She took a death breath. "Ariella is gone. She died. And when she died, she made sure to pull my husband with her. That girl was nothing but… trouble.” Her words came out bitter, clipped.

“She began her trouble with you when she decided she could be married to the next Don. And then she got so lucky that someone even stronger wanted her. And what did she do? She went and messed it all up, caught herself in death, and then pulled my husband with her. And now I’m left all alone in this world with nobody. Without my husband here, just existing, waiting for the day I die.”

I swallowed. I had always felt it; Ariella and her mom didn’t get along. It wasn’t a secret. Ariella used to complain about her mother, but I didn’t expect her mother to say this about her.

“Well, what happened was an accident,” I said. “An accident.”

Mrs. Costa’s lips thinned. “I’m sure she caused my husband’s death.”

I let the words hang. "That girl could have had the world in the palm of her hand. She might have been an idiot, but she was lucky. She didn’t know what to do with all the chips that were thrown in her hands..."

I forced the question out. “When my father, Domenico Romano, proposed to marry her...? Is that what you mean?”

Then something passed across her face, unreadable. I couldn’t tell whether it was admiration, fear, or something else entirely. I didn’t understand. But she wasn’t quiet. She laughed.

“Oh, Ariella,” she said, her voice bitter, tinged with mockery. “So lucky to get herself married to the Don. She was still young. She could have had kids. Kids that could have surpassed you, Asher. Ariella knew that... Ariella was just that lucky. But... stupid and dumb to think that love was bigger than power. To think that love could change anything. And in the end, the only thing she got was death. Just the only thing she got for her foolishness.”

She shook her head slowly, as if reliving something painful. “She tried so hard to fight that marriage. But we both know it was a done deal, right?”

She asked me, but I didn’t understand what she meant. And I realized, I didn’t want her to know what I knew… that her daughter was alive and well.

“The day my father came to arrange my marriage to Ariella...” I started, letting the words hang in the air, unfinished.

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